Building a Quarterly Life Review: How to Keep Your Big Goals on Track
How’s your Big Goal for this year going so far?
Every Spring, I get a burst of energy from the changing of the seasons.
The days get longer.
The temperature rises.
That is… until the anxiety sets in.
I think about the goals I set at the beginning of the year.
And how much I still have to do.
The Three-Month Check In
Last Spring, I wrote a piece called “The Power of Goldilocks and the Three-Month Self Check-In”.
The idea was simple — A year is too long to get feedback on your goals. A day is too short. 90 days is just right.
We make lofty goals at the beginning of every year and either abandon them outright a few months in or wait to start them over 365 days later.
But there’s something special about working in 3 month increments.
Sharing My Framework
Since then, I’ve been working in quarterly bursts, checking in with myself to manage my goals, what I’ve learned, and to course correct anything that’s out of order.
The process has been less than organized though.
So today I wanted to offer something different. Something that expands upon the idea and helps you actively do the same in your life.
I made a template.
You can download it below.
If you follow the basic steps, you should be well on your way to managing the goal you started this year and building consistency you can be proud of.
Reflecting on your Goals at WARPSpeed
The framework we’ll be working through today is called “WARPS.”
Why?
(Because my original acronym “JRBGS” didn’t sound as catchy 🤣)
Write
Ask
Rate
Plan
Support
Step 1 - Write (or Free Write to be exact)
The first thing you need to do is put pen to page. Write out anything and everything you want about the last three months.
Think about the goal you set for yourself. How do you feel it went?
Life happens to all of us. Were there any unexpected events that derailed you or pushed you forward?
Some days may have felt like wins. What were they?
Some days may have felt like losses. What happened?
Keep it loose. Write for 10-20 minutes. Let the memories of the last quarter pour out of you.
It’s not about nailing down specific details or absolute truths. It’s about feeling and memory.
Step 2 - Ask
After you’ve brainstormed and let the last 90 days out and on to the page, we need to get more specific and ask ourselves pointed questions.
Step 1 is about reminding yourself about what happened.
Step 2 is about gaining clarity on what happened.
Ask yourself these 5 questions:
What went well?
What went poorly?
What could I do better?
What’s holding me back?
What would I do differently?
Be as specific as possible. Be honest with yourself.
Step 3 - Rate
So, you’ve thought about the last 90 days.
You’ve been detailed about the process.
Now it’s time to be critical and rate the areas of your life.
—
This does two things:
It gives you a gauge of how you’re doing.
It helps you know where to spend your effort in the next 90 days.
The life of a creative professional isn’t a binary—half work and half life.
It’s more nuanced than that.
The average person has four or five buckets they focus their energy and time on at any given moment in their life. The buckets change as does the effort made to keep them balanced with one another.
—
Take your top 5 buckets.
List them out.
Give them a rating from 1 to 10.
1 = I am absolutely failing at this area of my life.
10 = I am loving every moment of this area of my life.
If you’re stuck figuring out the core areas of your life right now, here are several examples to start from that most people work from:
Family
Friends
Health
Hobbies
Faith
Finances
Work
Creativity
After you give your buckets a rating, write a note to yourself that expands on why you rated your performance in that bucket the way you did. If you have an example such as an event, write that down too.
Step 4 - Plan
Now that you’ve rated the buckets of your life, you should have a decent idea of where you are right now and how you feel about the last 90 days.
The next step is to plan the next 90 days.
First ask yourself, “Are the goals I set for myself still the goals I want to pursue?”
If yes, great!
If no, that’s okay too.
For both scenarios, the plan is the same.
We’re setting mini goals for the next 3 months.
Let’s take one of my goals for 2023—run a marathon.
I have a confession to you, Dear Reader: I’m not ready to go all in on running a full marathon at this stage in my running career.
But…
I can certainly close the distance to my goal by building up my long-distance running capacity.
So, instead of breaking my legs in half by trying to run a full 26.2 miles tomorrow, I can start by running 2 miles 3 times per week, then increasing my running load by 10%-ish every week after that. By the time I get to the end of 90 days, I would be closing in on a half marathon.
I don’t need to do everything at once. I just need to get to the next 90 days and then reassess using Steps 1 through 3.
Take a moment here to think of your big goal or goals.
Write it down.
Next, think of the smaller steps or mini-goals that will help you achieve it.
What are the mini-goals that you can work toward in the next three months?
Write down 1-3 mini-goals that will get you closer to achieving your main goal.
Step 5 - Support
For the last step, I need to define the support structure around which I’ll act on my goal(s). Think of this as a series of parameters that will keep me on track.
Continuing with the running example:
I can set a weekly goal to run 3x per week.
Then, I can set the specific days I’ll show up to run.
Then, I can add the days to a calendar.
Then, I can give myself rules for what happens if I miss a day.
My favorite is Matt d’Avella’s “never miss two”
If I miss one running day, I need to either shift my schedule by one day or double up to compensate
Now, all I have to do is be present on the days I’ve decided, adjusting as needed.
As long as I continue to show up and increase the mileage accordingly, I should reach my goal for this quarter.
This step is critical to success because it establishes the discipline and consistency you’re committing to for 90 days.
The good part though?
It’s only 90 days.
If you decide to move on from it at your next review, that’s perfectly fine.
My guess though—if you stick with it for the entire quarter, you’ll want to up the ante and continue to challenge yourself.
Write down at least 3 things you plan to do every day to keep yourself on track. Describe them in as much detail as you need. They should be specific and clear.
Examples:
Waking up an hour earlier each day
Never skipping more than one day
Going to bed an hour earlier each day
Tracking your progress in a journal
Pre-scheduling your routine
Giving yourself a “reward” at specific milestones
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I hope the WARPS framework and the template help you make the most of your next quarter.
Let me know what your big goal is and how you plan to tackle it in the next 90 days!
TL; DR
Goals can feel impossible when they’re too long
Use the WARPS framework to push your progress forward
W - Write
A - Ask
R - Rate
P - Plan
S - Structure
Get started and work on your goal
Assess how it’s going 90 days later
Quote of the Week
Motivation for the days ahead of you.
“Without proper self-evaluation, failure is inevitable.”
— John Wooden
That's all for now.
Stay creative, my friends—and have a great week!
